Garment hanger



p 1962 M. M. RUBIN ETAL 3,054,538

GARMENT HANGER Filed Aug. 2, 1960 JNVENTORS Mom/s M. RUBIN y DANIEL G. WONG Morris M. Rubin, El Cerrito, Calif.

3,054,538 GARE ENT GER (767 Sacramento St., San Francisco, Calif), and Daniel G. Wong, 767 Sacramento St., San Francisco, Calif.

Filed Aug. 2, 1960, Ser. No. 47,089 2 Claims. (Cl. 223-88) This invention generally relates to the construction of hangers for supporting articles of clothing, and is more particularly directed towards a conventional type of wire hanger which is provided with means for retaining the garments in proper position on the hanger.

Conventional wire hangers are widely used for the support of garments as they are relatively inexpensive to manufacture and require a minimum of space. While such hangers fulfill their requisite function when supporting a garment such as a coat or jacket, the proper support of a garment such as a skirt hung by the waistband straps or a slip hung by the shoulder straps presents a problem since the normally smooth surfaces of the hanger do not restrain movement of the garment relative thereto. Because of the foregoing, a Wide variety of modified wire hangers have heretofore been developed in an attempt to overcome such difiiculties. In general, such attempts have consisted of providing one or more notches along the sides or bottom of the hanger to receive the straps. However, it has been found that such'prior devices will not insure proper retention of the garment, particularly during transit of a load of garments, and also present additional problems and shortcomings which will be more fully explained when describing the hanger of the present invention and the objects and features thereof.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive wire hanger in which loop means are provided for engaging straps of a garment in such a manner that the garment will be positively restrained against displacement during transport, handling, or while subjected to forces normally tending to dislodge the garment from the hanger.

Another object of the invention is to provide a hanger of the type described on which a jacket or dress may be supported in addition to the garments hereinabove mentioned, and in which the jacket, dress or the like will be supported on a smooth surface, devoid of protuberances, so that no wrinkles will be formed therein.

A further object of this invention is to provide a hanger of the character described which is capable of supporting a plurality of garments without damage.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a hanger as hereinabove defined in which straps, loops, or the like may be operatively positioned on the hanger from the sides, i.e., from a direction generally normal to the plane of the hanger, as well as in the conventional manner, i.e., from a direction generally parallel to the plane of the hanger.

The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will be set forth in the following description of the preferred form of the invention which is illustrated in the drawing accompanying and forming part of the specification. It is to be understood, however, that variations in the showing made by the said drawing and description may be adopted within the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.

Referring to said drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a front view of a hanger in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIGURE 2 is a similar view of a modified form.

FIGURE 3 is a like view of a further modification.

FIGURE 4 is a front view of another embodiment of our invention.

FIGURE 5 is a portional front view of a further embodiment.

3,054,538 Patented Sept. 18, 1962 In each of the various figures of the drawing, a Wire hanger is illustrated, each characterized by some form of dress or slip strap receiving means so that the above mentioned features of the invention may be carried out. It will be noted that in each of the embodiments, the hanger includes a horizontal bottom portion 12 and garment shoulder supporting portions 13 extending inwardly and upwardly from the ends of the bottom. The portions 13 terminate centrally of the hanger whereat the wire is twisted as indicated at 14, with one end of the wire extending upwardly beyond the twist and deformed to provide an arcuate hook 16 for supporting the hanger on a supporting rod or the like. The foregoing construction is conventional for wire hangers and therefore, in most of the views, only portions of the hanger are illustrated.

Referring now to FIGURE 1 of the drawing, loop means are provided on the portions 13 for receiving straps or similar garment bands in such a manner as to insure retention of the garment on the hanger while still permitting a jacket or the like to be likewise positioned on the hanger without damage. As herein illustrated, such means includes a plurality of deformations 17 extending from the wire portions 13 towards the bottom portion 12 in generally elliptical form so as to provide a strap receiving loop 18 with an opening 19 for entry and egress thereto disposed along the length of the portion 13. It is noted that the undeformed portions of member 13 on each side of the respective deformations are in longitudinal adjacent relationship and are preferably in slight contact. In this manner, in order to place a slip or skirt strap into the loop 18, the same must be fed through the restricted opening 19 into the loop 18. Since the width of the opening is substantially less than the width of a strap, it will be appreciated that the same will be positively restrained against accidental dislodgment. In fact,

in order to permit entry or removal of the strap, it may be necessary to efiect a slight enlargement of the opening 19. This, of course, is a simple matter, since it is only necessary to flex the portion 13, increasing the size of the opening, and then due to the inherent resiliency of wire, upon release of the flexure pressure, the portions on opposite sides of the opening will resume their normal contiguous relationship.

The particular form of the loop 18 in which the garment strap is operatively positioned may assume a variety of shapes while still performing its requisite functions. Thus, in FIGURE 2 of the drawing, a receiving loop 21 of generally triangular shape is defined by a deformation which includes an element 22 disposed parallel to the hanger portion 13 and a pair of converging side walls 23 integrally formed with the portions of member 13 on opposite sides thereof so as to provide a restricted inlet opening 24, corresponding to the opening 19 of FIGURE 1. In FIGURE 3, the deformation is circular to provide a circular loop 26 and a corresponding opening 27 leading thereto.

From for foregoing, it will be appreciated that by providing a plurality of deformations as above described on each of the hanger members 13, a number of garments may be supported in the respective receiving loops while still leaving the upper surface of members 13 substantially flush so that a dress or jacket may be supported thereon without causing wrinkling or other damage which could result from upward projections on the member 13.

In FIGURE 4 there is illustrated a further embodiment of the invention which possesses the advanta es above discussed with reference to the modifications shown in FIGURES 1 to 3, but which permits the hanging of skirts, slips and the like from the side of the hanger. Thus, even if, for example, a jacket is positioned on the members 13, it would be possible to engage skirt slip straps within suitable deformations Without removing the jacket. For purpose of convenience of illustration, the receiving loops are here shown as disposed along the bottom member 12 of the hanger with a like number disposed on each side of the hanger centerline. Each of the deformations may be similarly formed and therefore'only one need be described in any detail. More specifically, the wire member 12 is bent to provide a reverse S curve 31 and a spaced 8 curve 32, with the opposed portions contacting each other as indicated at 33, thence diverging outwardly as at 34 to substantially contact upper portions of the 8 curves and define therewith restricted openings 36 communicating with a pair of adjacent receiving loops 37. The wire then converges as at 38 towards an apex 39 disposed along the longitudinal extent of the bottom 12 and bridging the loops 37. With this arrangement, a strap may be placed over the apex 39 and resiliently urged through the restricted openings 36 until properly seated within the loops 37. Once the strap passes through the openings 36, only deliberate action can efiect its removal.

In order to permit the placing of the straps on the hanger from two normally related directions, the type of deformation just described may be positioned on the sides 13 of the drawing, it will be seen that the deformation is similar to that described in connection with the FIGURE 4 embodiment, with each deformation including a pair of generally circular adjacent portions 46 defining receiving loops 47 with the opposed ends flaring outwardly as at 48 to merge with the side 13 and with the inner ends of arcuate bridge form as shown at 49 in contact with portions 48 to define restricted openings 51 to the receiving loops. When this hanger is used in a conventional manner, a strap may be brought over the end 56 of the hanger, at the juncture of the bottom 12 and side 13, passed through one of the openings 51, and seated in a selected one of the receiving loops 47. However, the strap may alternately be draped over the portion 49 from a side of the hanger, and passed through a related-pair of openings 51 and finally disposed in a pair of adjacent receiving loops 47.

From the foregoing description, it will be understood that in all of the various embodiments, a conventional wire hanger may be readily modified by merely adding to the length thereof 'so as to provide material for the deformations. With the deformations, it is possible to insure retention of a plurality of garments or an ensemble on a single hanger while maintaining the same in wrinklefree condition. It will likewise be understood that any combination of the various deformations may be positioned on both of the hanger portions 12 and 13. Thus as shown in FIGURE 4, the deformation 17 of FIG- URE 1 is incorporated on the portion 13 to provide additional strap receiving areas. I

What is claimed is:

l. A hanger of the character described comprising a length of wire bent to provide a bot-tom element and a side element extending upwardly and inwardly from each end of said bottom element in generally coplanar relationship therewith, at least one of said elements being downwardly deformed in the plane of the hanger intermediate the ends thereof with such deformation defining a substantially enclosed garment strap receiving loop, and the portions of said one element on opposite sides of said deformation being in substantially immediately adjacent relation defining a restricted access opening to said loop.

2. A hanger of the character described including a central element for supporting the hanger from a rod or the like and members extending laterally outwardly irom opposite sides of said element in generally coplanar relationship therewith, each of said members intermediate the ends thereof having downwardly extending means References Cited in the file of this patent t V UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,279,777

Dean Apr. 14, 1942 2,628,006 Smith Feb. 10, 1953 2,877,939 Delnick Mar. 17, 1959' 

